Jan 21 2010
GeckoSystems Intl. Corp. (PINKSHEETS: GCKO)
announced today that their suite of sensor fusion technologies is
instrumental in their ongoing world's first in home personal companion
robot trials for elder care. GeckoSystems is a dynamic leader in the
emerging mobile robotics industry revolutionizing their development and
usage with "Mobile Robot Solutions for Safety, Security and Service™."
"We use multiple layers of sensors and sensor systems to achieve what some
describe as 'actionable situational awareness.' For example our
CareBots™ are capable of powering down unnecessary systems to lengthen
battery life while grandma sleeps, and then power back up automatically
should she, for example get out of her bed in the middle of the night. The
CareBot 'watches over' the care receiver using a scientifically developed
fusion of sonar, active infrared, passive infrared, etc. to enable the
CareBot to be aware of the care receiver's movements such that
GeckoTrak™ can guide GeckoNav™ to stay proximate to grandma such that
GeckoChat™ can have verbal interaction with her. The GeckoSuper™
then determines whether and/or when to automatically notify the caregiver
that grandma is 'up and about at 2:30A' and may need the care giver to look
in personally, either over the video camera, or with a physical visit,"
stated Martin Spencer, President/CEO of GeckoSystems.
"GeckoSystems has been a top pioneer in the field of low cost sensor fusion
technology. We were extremely pleased to learn last year from Frost &
Sullivan's report that our internally developed sensor fusion technologies
have application in many significant markets other than the mobile service
robot marketplace. These important insights will allow us to license our
proprietary sensor fusion technologies to many firms outside of the
emerging mobile robotics industry and increase ROI for our investors."
According to Wikipedia: "Sensor fusion is the combining of sensory data or
data derived from sensory data from disparate sources such that the
resulting information is in some sense better than would be possible when
these sources were used individually."
Everyday we use "sensor fusion" in our routine activities. For example, we
smell smoke and then look for a grayish cloud to determine the source of
the smoke, its proximity, and consequent degree of danger to us. In noisy
crowds when we talk with someone, we use lip reading to enable us to
understand what we don't hear clearly. Humans use sensor fusion every day
to make choices based on data that is interdependent, or incomplete, versus
using only one of our five senses. The better, more robust and disparate
the sensor fusion, the better the choices and the more "actionable" the
"situation awareness" is.
GeckoSystems employs proprietary sensor fusion technologies not only in its
flagship automatic self-navigation software, GeckoNav, but also in
GeckoTrak, the GeckoSPIO™, and GeckoOrient™. GeckoTrak uses advanced
sensor fusion to merge machine vision, passive infrared, and sonar to
identify and/or locate the person of interest such that GeckoTrak can
inform GeckoNav automatically as to the whereabouts of the designated
person for continuous proximate monitoring. The GeckoSPIO, a sensor/power
input/output mobile robot controller board, enables faster, more graceful
self-navigation through loose crowds of moving people as in airport, bus,
and train terminals, shopping centers and other public areas. GeckoOrient
automatically and intelligently merges sensor data from odometry (dead
reckoning), a solid-state compass and accelerometer based gyroscopes
(IMU's) for enhanced orientation accuracy while errand running, patrolling,
or following a designated person.
SOURCE: GeckoSystems Intl. Corp.